4.5/5 ★ – RPGLover2000's review of Sonic Colors (DS).

This was so much more well designed than its two console counterparts (SD and HD). First off, this keeps the essence of the two previous Rush games-although the trick system is replaced by hitting enemies and white wisps, I find it much more well-implemented here. Secondly, the wisps feel like a part of the level design, instead of a mere gimmick that barely sticks to the wall. Now those levels: there’s still about six-2 acts, a boss, and this version has what’s called “Missions”, and there are usually three of these. Like the sonic games since Rush and 06, Colors DS also has S ranks. Most of the main acts will take about 2 minutes or so. The missions can be much much faster. They’re essentially smaller parts of the main two acts reworked for a specific Sonic like task you have to do very quickly in order to achieve a good rank. Like the Console counterparts, the red rings are also here-five per main act, and two per mission. The bosses in this version of the game are not only superior to the console counterparts, but superior to the bosses in the two previous Rush games-much as I love those games, everyone agrees those bosses are waiting pattern trash. You can finish most of these bosses in like thirty seconds with the wisp. And unlike the console counterparts, the chaos emeralds are collected in a special stage here-which you can retry in stage if you know you’re not going to make it. And they’re actually quite easy (esp compared to some other special stages. It does lose a point for repeating the stale sonic 2 special stage formula tho). Completion wise you need all Red Rings, S Ranks, and Chaos Emeralds. And you need to S rank every mission twice (except the last mission-I didn’t have to anyway. Which was great cuz that one was hard. You have to learn how to speedrun that to have a sliver of a chance of an s rank.). And the secret final boss after collecting the emeralds isn’t terrible-not as great as something like Shadow Gens Devil Doom, but def better than Time Eater from Sonic Gens. Overall, a great package that delivers on everything it promised-unlike its console counterparts, which underdeliver in multiple places, even if they are enjoyable to an extent. Play all three, but def save the best for last. This is a fantastic game. And it’s portable-I rlly don’t what else you could possibly ask of it.